Latest news with #KimCoghill
The Star
3 days ago
- Climate
- The Star
Northern China flash flood kills 10, two others reported missing
BEIJING (Reuters): At least 10 people died in a flash flood in northern China, state media reported on Sunday, with two others still missing, as the East Asian monsoon continues to unleash atmospheric chaos across the world's second-largest economy. The banks of a river running through the grasslands of Inner Mongolia burst at around 10 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Saturday, the report said, washing away 13 people camping on the outskirts of the city of Bayannur, a major agricultural hub. A search and rescue operation involving more than 700 people is underway, according to state news agency Xinhua. One person has been rescued. China has suffered weeks of extreme weather since July, battered by heavier-than-usual downpours with the monsoon stalling over its north and south. Weather experts link the shifting pattern to climate change, testing officials as flash floods displace thousands and threaten billions of dollars in economic losses. Bayannur is an important national grain and oil production base, as well as a sheep breeding and processing centre. At the other end of the country, a three-and-a-half-month fishing suspension in the southern province of Hainan ended on Saturday, state media reported, after agricultural affairs officials ordered ships to shelter in port owing to persistent, heavy rain. In the southwestern province of Sichuan, severe weather on Friday killed two people and injured three others at a beer festival in the city of Mianzhu, after a truss fell on them, according to a local police report on Saturday. The deluge in Inner Mongolia follows a deadly downpour in Beijing - just under 1,000 km (621 miles) away - late last month which killed at least 44 people and forced the evacuation of more than 70,000 residents. The central government announced last week 430 million yuan ($59.9 million) in fresh funding for disaster relief, taking the total allocated since April to at least 5.8 billion yuan. (Reporting by Joe Cash; Editing by Kim Coghill and Sonali Paul) - Reuters
Zawya
11-08-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Saudi crude oil supply to China set to fall in September, sources say
SINGAPORE - Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports to China are set to fall in September, slipping from a more than two-year high in August after the world's largest exporter raised prices, three trade sources said on Monday. State oil firm Saudi Aramco will ship about 43 million barrels to China in September, or 1.43 million barrels per day (bpd), a tally of allocations to Chinese refiners showed. This is down from 1.65 million bpd allocated in August. (Reporting by Florence Tan; Editing by Kim Coghill)
The Star
04-08-2025
- The Star
One person killed after bus collides with train in Russia's Leningrad region
A general view shows the scene following the collision of a bus with a freight train in the Leningrad region, Russia, August 4, 2025, in this still image taken from video. Russian Investigative Committee/Handout via REUTERS (Corrects headline, paragraph 1 after railway administration says one person killed, not two, 11 injured, not 10) (Reuters) -One person was killed and 11 others injured when a bus collided with a freight train in Russia's Leningrad region, the regional railway administration said on Monday. "The driver of the ... bus entered the crossing in front of an approaching freight train," the railway administration of the Leningrad region, in northwest Russia, said on the Telegram messaging app. "The train driver applied emergency braking, but the distance was too short to prevent a collision." The railways administration said it was a regular service bus, but Russian state news agency RIA cited the local prosecutor's office as saying it was a tourist bus. (Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Kim Coghill and Christian Schmollinger)
The Star
14-07-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Russia says Ukrainian drones attacked training centre at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
(Reuters) -Ukrainian drones attacked a training centre at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on Sunday evening, the Russian-installed administration of the Russia-held plant in Ukraine said on Monday. "The enemy used three unmanned aerial vehicles," the administration said on the Telegram messaging app. It added that "no critical" damage was recorded. Reuters could not independently verify the Russian report. The report comes a day after the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, said that it had heard hundreds of rounds of small arms fire late on Saturday at the plant. Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia plant in the first weeks of Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Each side regularly accuses the other of firing or taking other actions that could trigger a nuclear accident. The station, Europe's biggest nuclear power plant, is not operating but still requires power to keep its nuclear fuel cool. The plant's Russia-installed management said in its statement that the station "continues to operate normally, with all necessary safety precautions in place." (Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Warsaw; Editing by Kim Coghill)
The Star
28-06-2025
- Business
- The Star
Flood-hit China expands social security net as extreme rain takes toll
Guizhou was the focus of China's flood alleviation efforts this week, with one of its cities hit by flooding on a scale that meteorologists said could only happen once in 50 years. -- PHOTO: REUTERS BEIJING (Reuters): China has expanded the economic safeguards for segments of its population affected by flood control schemes in times of extreme rainfall, including pledges of direct compensation from the central government and payments for livestock losses. In China, diverting flood-waters to areas next to rivers is a major step in managing downstream flooding. As extreme rainfall grows in frequency, China is increasingly utilising such areas, some of which have been unused until now and have been populated by farms, croplands and even residential buildings, stoking social tensions. According to revised rules on compensation related to flood diversions released late on Friday, the central government will now bear 70% of all compensation funds, with local governments responsible for the rest. Previously, the ratio was to be decided based on actual economic losses and the fiscal situation of local governments. Livestock and poultry that cannot be relocated in time before the arrival of diverted flood-waters will also be included in the compensation scheme for the first time. Previously, only the loss of working animals could be claimed for compensation. In the summer of 2023, almost 1 million people in Hebei, a province on the doorstep of Beijing, were relocated after record rain forced authorities to divert water from swollen rivers to some populated areas for storage, triggering anger over the homes and farms sacrificed to save the Chinese capital. China currently has 98 designated flood diversion areas spanning major river basins including the Yangtze River basin, home to a third of the country's population. During the 2023 Hebei floods, eight flood storage areas were used. Since the start of the East Asia monsoon in early June, precipitation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze has been up to two times higher than usual, officials from the China Meterological Administration told reporters on Friday. In other parts of China, daily rainfall measured by 30 meteorological stations in provinces such as Hubei and Guizhou broke records for the month of June, they said. Guizhou was the focal point of China's flood alleviation efforts this week, with one of its cities hit by flooding on a scale that meteorologists said could only happen once in 50 years, and at a speed that shocked its 300,000 residents. That prompted Beijing to issue pledges on Thursday to move vulnerable populations and industries to low-flood areas and allocate more space for flood diversion. (Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Kim Coghill) - Reuters
